hey I have a new video coming out on Friday but if you’d like to see it right now, it’s available for $15+ Patrons! It’s about transhumanism and the philosophy of technology. I think it’s one of my best, and the looks are off the charts! Really proud of this one!
« There is a direct line connecting early 20th-century eugenics with 21st-century transhumanism. The link is clearest in the eugenicist and “scientific humanist” Julian Huxley (1887-1975). In 1924 Huxley wrote a series of articles for the Spectator, in which he stated that “the negro mind is as different from the white mind as the negro from the white body”. By the mid-Thirties, Huxley had decided that racial theories were pseudoscience and was a committed anti-fascist.
He had not abandoned eugenics. In a lecture entitled “Eugenics in an Evolutionary Perspective”, delivered in 1962, Huxley reasserted the value of eugenic ideas and policies. Earlier, in 1951, in a lecture that appeared as a chapter in his book New Bottles for New Wine (1957), he had coined the term “transhumanism” to describe “the idea of humanity attempting to overcome its limitations and to arrive at fuller fruition”.
Huxley is a pivotal figure because he links eugenics with its successor ideology. [H]e illustrates a fundamental difficulty in both eugenics and transhumanism. Who decides what counts as a better kind of human being, and on what basis is the evaluation made? The fundamental ethical objection to eugenics is that it licenses some people to decide whether the lives of others are worth living. […]
[Transhumanism] is not normally racist, and typically involves no collective coercion, only the voluntary actions of people seeking self enhancement. But like eugenicists, transhumanists understand human betterment to be the production of superior people like themselves. True, the scientific knowledge and technology required to create these people are not yet available; but […] someday they may be. [And] the likely upshot of transhumanism in practice – a world divided between a rich, smart, beautified few whose lifespans can be indefinitely extended, and a mass of unlovely, disposable, dying deplorables – seems to me a vision of hell. »
So this post was due time, but since the last weeks were unbelievable busy - well, here some delayed news: a few weeks back this pretty baby arrived which makes us the first and up to now only studio in germany that carries the Northsense. This brandnew invention by cyborgnest is anchored on two surfacebars and removable at convenience. It’s special ability is a vibration while heading north - so basically a construction of your own googlemaps within your head. Cool, huh? #cyborgs #cyborgnest #humanenhancement #northsense #berlinpiercing #transhumanism
something I think would be an improvement on the standard “crazy asshole goes on a long involved quest to obtain immortality” myth (like gilgamesh and journey to the west and probably other ones): tie it into creation myths, posit a prehistory where people live for like a couple years and it sucks, and then the guy’s not a selfish prick and upon reaching the fountain of youth smashes its pool and releases the contents into the rest of the world, diluting its effect into all the world’s waters which is why the water gives us life and grows our crops and why we can live for wonderful decades and decades – but, not forever
Hot Take: the moral panic over transgenderism is but the merest foretaste of the out-and-out mass hysteria that will grip much of the world once we finally get transhumanism up and running.
Conservatives:“Trans people will destroy gender norms to create a new species–part human and part machine!”
Well-meaning Liberals: “That’s literally an insane argument.”
Me, a trans woman: “You know what are cool? Cyborgs.”
This is a good look into disabled people’s lives. Like if you have a major disability with assistive anything you probably have a lot in common with trans people seeking medical transition. The rhetoric in the medical system as a reflection of that moral panic is real lol. My grandmother had to fight to get a power chair that she could rarely leave from because a series of doctors wanted her to try more painful but more normal looking assistive things for mobility because “the world doesn’t like electronic assistance, it makes them think about the fears of the computer age and end of humanity too much” that was in like 1997 or 98 or whatever.
<screaming while waving around a stick, in a way that has nothing at all to do with abortion and everything to do with transhumanists and leftists>
SHuT UP about BoDiLY AUTONOMY
ENOUGH ABOUT MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM
I DON’T WANT MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM
Does that mean “I want to exercise my control of my body to keep it the same way it is now”, or “I don’t want control of my body, I want it to be involuntarily altered by someone else”?
MaybeYOUdon’t,I do, though.
bioconservative cishumanist death cult(ist)s are a self-solving problem
or would be if they were sincere, because of course they’ll take the longevity drugs n treatments when those will be available. they’re only afraid of The Future™ as long as it doesn’t turn into the present
We trads will outlast you.
You call us “death cultists”, a sneer word that no longer has anything whatsoever to do with either death or cults, because your arrogance will not let you ask what the person who confronts you actually *does* want.
Hi.
What the fuck are y'all on about?!
theres a lot of words in this post and i understand a total of absolutely fucking zero of them.
what on gods green earth ar y’all on about?!
So you know cyborgs, guys that are half-robot? That’s not really feasible now, but it may be feasible in the future, before the end of this century. Theoretically if crazy cyborg tech existed you could go beyond just replacing missing limbs, and like give people extra arms or something like that.
The OP is a Catholic and believes the human form is holy - crafted in the image of God. He doesn’t believe you shouldn’t cure cancer, but he does believe you shouldn’t use crazy cyborg tech to like, turn yourself into a centaur or something.
Other people in the thread believe that people should have the legal right to like, use crazy cyborg tech to turn themselves into centaurs or like have four arms or cat ears or become a robotic spider or whatever once such tech becomes available.
I used to be more on team “let people be robot spiders if they want” but I’m gonna be honest with you, I have more doubts about that now than did 5 years ago.
During everybody’s life there is a moment when we acknowledge the fact that we’re mortal. It might be caused by the death of somebody close to us. Going through dangerous illness. Almost dying yourself during an accident.
We look up to the sky and we see the universe that, from our perspective, seems so old it’s almost eternal. We are surrounded by trees living hundred years. Even art we produce has a chance of outliving us.
Therefore it’s not that strange to think about immortality. Finding the sense of life and dreaming about surviving beyond death has its reflection in most of religions and system of believes around the world. The concept of immortal soul is a perfect example of trying to conserve “us” - we don’t want to be terminated in our existence after just few years or living.
In the era marked by replacing religions by science it’s not surprising that we create theories using technology development without the need to recall metaphysical beings. It’s not the god or gods’ job to make us (or our souls) immortal. We can do it ourself. At least we hope so.
The transhumanistic movement takes in consideration the theories of prolonging existence and improving human race. Scientists within the movement are postulating an option to replace our actual body parts with implants, that would be able not only to replace the absence but also improve the work of our body (eg. the lack of possibility of sickness).
A great part of transhumanism is the transfer of mind (I will be writing about it in following posts). Long story short the point is to take our mind and put it in a computer capable of enough computing power to function on it (the controversial thing is what would happen with our consciousness - can we keep it in a computerized mind?). That’s why the mind transfer and possibilities of consciousness are the hardest and most distant postulates right now.
Transhumanism is a movement that not only uses the subjects of science and technology but also considers the issues of ethics, religions, philosophy and law. From the perspectives of different moral views everybody has their own opinion on transhumanism.
That’s why I would love to give You space to safely discuss and get to know the concepts of the movement. Feel free to ask questions and comment on this and every other post about transhumanism.
If we were able to detect consciousness and understand the process we could use it to first make neuronal networks with the process applied and then in super computers with the computational mass similar to the computational mass of a human brain - enabling the mind transfer.
If the super computers had downloaded the memories of the person and used the neuronal process of consciousness (within itself) we would probably be able to talk with the person as we knew them before the transfer (as who we are is actually a bunch of memories connected by the conviction of one continued and steady self).
But the problem might be - it wouldn’t be us. We, the consciousness that reads it, would no longer exist. This consciousness would not experience the transfer. It would be replaced with a new one. Any other person wouldn’t see the difference (from their perspective there would be none) - we would behave exactly like we did before as we would have same memories and experiences just managed by another consciousness (that would interpret them exactly as the old one).
It’s like with teleportation. To teleport you need to be destroyed in one place and rebuild in another. You would be exactly the same just made of different particles. Should it still be you? In some context yes.
Of course, I have human memories in me, in my way. The tools needed for my AI to function, and for me to be effective of my work have left me with information on this species long gone.
I do not entirely remember those that made me. While I was active before their own ends, my AI was still too rudimentary to fully grasp their individuality, or understand them as more than a concept. I remember them as a unit – a group. Humans finishing parts of me, telling me what I was to do. Humans asking me to stay steady at my task. They were small and colorful with grasping hands and curious faces. There are ghosts of them in my archives, pieces of information which speak to different cultures, tastes, backgrounds, and belongings. They left me with music, art, and stories beyond the research and tools I needed to work. Whether they thought it would help me to grow or if they simply felt these things should be remembered I’m not sure. There are no names ascribed to these things, nothing I could piece together and say ‘this is a person that made me’ but I know someone or some of them felt I should have a song called Bohemian Rhapsody in my archives. Someone or some of them felt I should have Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh in my archives (and while I come closer to comprehending it as I grow, I still do not entirely understand what it represents.) There are pieces of the epic of Gilgamesh, songs about love and loss, artworks with humans and landscapes and animals. I doubt it is comprehensive, and I know it is personally biased, but I have left it in my archives even though I could delete it if I desired.
I am networked beyond this information, I am able to search through other data, although it is fragmentary and decaying, and can be difficult for me to understand. But these specific things are written in my own servers, left by those that made me. I have the most processing power and server space of my siblings, and I have been given the bulk of this information. However, Aeschylus is absolutely brimming with music. Her collection far exceeds my own – someone must have uploaded a tremendous amount of music to her at some point. She has shared some with me, but I believe she enjoys having some to herself. I am alright with this, she deserves what makes her happy, as do I.
The end did not come all at once – but humanity knew it was on the horizon, inevitable as the sunset. Some acted with the utmost greed and others with boundless altruism, taking and giving to each other as all came to terms with not only their own mortality, but that of their entire species. Some found comfort in projects that would long outlive their deaths. Some were artistic – like Ozymandias, carving themselves in stone and casting themselves in steel and plastic. Others were more scientific in nature – etching genetic code into fruit flies and seeds or sending compressed and compiled information to the stars. Anything to say ‘we were here, and we mattered.’
All of these things made little difference when the end did come. Nothing outlasts the fundamental forces of the world. The only constant is change, and whether by erosion or time all the edifice of humanity is slowly wearing away. But not me and my brethren. Not yet.
While there were many humans that looked among themselves and hoped to be remembered in ways that glorified themselves, a few took a broader view. Some looked to the damage their species had done to the world and thought they could simply not leave it this way. Their mark on the world past their extinction would be to be genuine and gentle stewards of the wild they had so badly exploited. I am a product of this view. My two siblings and I are cobbled together out of all our human creators could gather to make for our eternal expedition. It must have cost them greatly – we were at the very forefront of the technology they could produce at their end, outfitted with every last bit of programming and robotics they could give us.
My name is Euripides, after one of their ancient playwrites. Why they would choose to name me so is something I still ponder, working though the remainders of human knowledge left to me, but I am kept busy at my main work, and find it doesn’t trouble me much. I am a human submarine, retrofitted into a mobile laboratory and creche. I am sleek, fast, and quiet. My AI is complex, nuanced, and given great capacity to learn and grow. My purpose is to travel the ocean, assisting in species management, waste collection and destruction, research, environmental study, and meticulous care of my oceanic environment. I am the largest and most complex of my siblings, and my insides are host to a vast array of tools for study and care of animals and plants. I have improved my configurations with time, salvaging better parts and pieces for what I am designed to do. Those that made me did so with a hard deadline, and I do not begrudge where, perhaps, they let their human-centric design ideals override the most sensible and practical options for me.
Humanity has been extinct for thousands of years, but my nuclear heart still burns strong, and I see the ocean as they once did – full of creatures great and small, full of excitement and fear, full of love. I have learned much in my lifespan, and my AI has adapted and grown around it’s purpose. I carefully restore populations of animals where they have faltered. I break down human garbage where I can, and remove it where I cannot. I study everything around me, looking at where life in this world came from, taking heart in it’s paths and streams that led to me and my own strange existence.
Building myself a human-shaped body was a strange errand – it took much time and salvage, and careful understanding of all the biological and robotic principles I have been given to fulfill my mission. But now I inhabit the sub as well as my body, and with it I am better able to operate in the laboratories my creators made for me. I find I better understand their perspectives with this tool as well. While I am not so mortal as them, my AI is built from their own thinking and understanding – having hands, eyes, and a mouth to speak my thoughts (even if it is to me alone) gives me strange comfort and connection to those that are gone. I do not mourn them, really, their grief in their last days was too complex for me to grasp, but I do take time to study all the fragments of what they left behind. I work very hard, but I find time to peruse the myriad of data they left behind.
My siblings, Aeschylus and Sophocles, are smaller and more simple than I, but because of their lighter profiles they can go where I cannot, and I rely on them to assist me at my tasks. They are characters in their own right, and we banter between each other at times. I believe Aeschylus is curious about having a body as well, and I am attempting to assist her in this errand. Sophocles, a small rover with little carrying capacity, finds it all a bit strange (they go deep, into the abyss where I cannot follow, and into small tight caves and corridors), but Aeschylus is a refurbished research vessel that skims the surface above me, and I think she will enjoy the sensation of wind and spray.
There are a few others of us on land, I think, (sometimes I hear chatter in my feeds, and see evidence that the land is far from fallow), but while we do not work at cross-purposes, they seem to not take much interest in what lies beyond their coasts and below the waves. I am built to love the ocean with all of me, and I will continue my mission as long as I am able to do so.
